128keaton

Well, we replaced the pitman arm, lower ball joints, and the power steering pump on my 1993. The old PS pump was leaking from the shaft (we believe, thats the only thing left to leak) Now, its decently harder to turn, but its almost sticky, very annoying on the highway, doing little corrections. I think it might be getting better, maybe just breaking in the new pump. I was confused with the two vacuum lines coming out, I think that they are on right. Would that impact the steering? I haven't been able to find anything about this anywhere else.

gsp4life

The two large vacuum hoses off the p/s pump from the intake can be switched around or even removed and capped off with no consequences. They feed into the top of the same valve so your problem has to be somewhere else.

millball

Where did you source you new pump??

Corner auto parts store rebuilts are often junk right out of the box.

128keaton

AutoZone. I was in a pinch.

gsp4life

Do you still have the old leaky pump? You can buy a gates rebuild kit and follow one of the steering pump rebuild threads.

128keaton

Unfortunately not

128keaton

Yeah, jeez, this is terrible. Now I've gotta find another pump and replace the AZ POS...

gsp4life

Well, before all that I'd remove the p/s belt and just drive it a little without power steer. It should feel really hard to turn at very slow speeds, but easy above say 20mph. Do some not-too-slow tight turns in a big parking lot and lane changes at speed. If it feels fine under those conditions, then you know it's the pump for sure. Also, does the atf (you are using dexron iii, right?) have bubbles in it while the engine is running?

128keaton

Ok, I'll try it. I've driven a couple of cars without power steering, and its much easier than this. It is sticking, like if you turn the steering wheel, it will stay turned. Doing minor corrections is hard, since it sticks, and then you have to corrector for that correction, and its an endless cycle. I am using PS fluid. PO said he never used anything but (I had a rad fan blow up and take out the passenger PS hose, I just used PS fluid again). I did bleed it a bit. I'll try bleeding it again, seeing if it works better. While reinstalling the pitman arm, we've somehow got it in a bind. Warning: so much fail ahead. We figured putting the nut on and tightening would help. And it did, until the threads were pulled out of the nut. *sigh*. Waiting on another nut to come in. I have a trip planned to Indianapolis on the 30th, so I've got to get her running 100% soon!

128keaton

Another, more expensive, thought popped into my head. We had to beat on the gear from the steering box to get the old pitman arm out, is there a possibility we broke the gear out of the worm drive?

millball

Hammering on parts when a suitable puller is whats needed, is always bad news.

This may turn out to be an expensive lesson.

Hopefully, the box is not damaged.

It is never a mistake to spend money on tools.

I try to buy first quality used tools at pawn shops and such.

A first quality used tool will always be saleable for near what you paid for it.

Chinese slave labor tools are worthless the minute you have laid down your money.

gsp4life

All true. I was given a large set of 1960's-90's craftsman tools from my in-laws. I've sent my old set of Walmart and dollar-store tools to sulk in the corner.

As for the steering being sticky and the new info about bashing off the old arm... yikes! Something sounds broken, and it's not your p/s pump. If you don't know where to start looking, I'd jack up the front and use a stethoscope to find weird noises while someone turns the wheel.

You really should consider flushing the system to dexron iii after you fix whatever's broken (hopefully not the gearbox but don't get your hopes too high). I know some people run p/s fluid with no problems, but it's not the correct stuff to use. I think it's thinner and has a different amount of detergent. You can read threads where people are surprised at how much smoother the system felt after switching back to atf. It's your truck, but just sayin'...